Halloween is a big deal at Hootsuite. Of course our employees love the holiday and go all out on costumes (for themselves and their dogs). But we also love Halloween because it lets us get creative and connect with our users in a much more unique way. Last year it was through a zombie video contest with our friends at Zendesk. And this year it took the form of a series of horror movie character portraits we’ve dubbed the #SocialNotScary campaign.

The idea for these portraits came from the notion that many people are scared or intimidated by social media. Whether its hackers and trolls, or the simple complexity of social media, there’s a certain culture of anxiety  attached to these tools that we use and promote every day. We wanted to share the message that social media doesn’t have to be scary in a way that got our point across but was very compelling and shareable.

We settled on the idea of pairing iconic horror movie characters with popular social networks. We cast our own employees to play the part and worked with local photographers and make-up artists to transform them into these infamous characters. Have a look below.

Enter to win a Hootsuite prize pack by sharing your favourite image with the hashtag #SocialNotScary on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.